Officiant - shocked and appalled

So i have been thinking about this for some time and trying to decide whether i should post about it or not, but i think its something worth knowing when it comes to choosing the person who is going to make your wedding what the day is really all about. and when i came to realize that he was a LIW 'vendor', i definitely thought it was appropriate to share.

a few months back when we started looking for an officiant we contacted someone who had married our friends and came highly recommended. we called him and clicked right away, he sent us sample ceremonies and we went back and forth via email several times. about a week later he sent me an email that he completely forgot and didnt realize that he had another wedding already booked for that day. i was really upset since i had gotten myself so overwhelmed about finding the right person for us and now i had to start all over. we told our friends what had happened, at which point they told us that he was already booked for their date when they had contacted him as well, and they were late in the game with choosing an officiant. this officiant basically told them that if he were paid the right price he would cancel on his previous committment and do their wedding. which they did, and he cancelled on the other couple. personally, i find that to be appalling. what about this other couple?? what if this was who they had their hearts set on to marry them? why should they have to find someone else at the last minute because it turns out their officiant cares more about money? There is no way in H E L L i would ever offer that person more money, that principle doesnt even reflect what he is supposed to stand for. it disgusts me. what if someone else offered him more money on top of it?? where does it end?

anyway, i'd rather not post the name right here since this person is a liw approved officiant and it will probably get pulled faster than you can say money hungry, but i have no problem sharing the info with you via FM. i just feel like out of all the aspects of a wedding and all the vendors that can potentially scr*w you over, this shouldnt be one of them. i know for us when we met with our officiant - who i am so thankful to have found and could not be happier to have marrying us - i finally felt like, this is really what the wedding is all about, and it felt so good. that shouldnt be tainted by money.

I think that's disgusting, but I'm pretty sure we had a makeup artist do something similar to us.

(We had a second makeup artist booked, and 16 days before my wedding she called me and said she 'had to' up our agreed price an add'l $50 per bridesmaid AND add a gas surcharge... and then told me I'd never find anyone to do it for less. I believe a better offer came up and rather than cancelling on me she wanted to try to play me against that offer in deciding which one to keep.)

Make sure to get everything in writing with whatever vendor you do choose..... and try to pick people who are reputable. sometimes its hard when the negatives arent posted

FWIW, i find it much worse that this is an officiant as opposed to any other vendor

Maybe that's his tactic to try to get more $. Maybe he doesn't have someone already booked, but he just tells that to couples to try to get more $ out of them?

Regardless, that is really inappropriate!

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Posted by lila

FWIW, i find it much worse that this is an officiant as opposed to any other vendor

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that is truly disgusting especially if they have religious connections
makes me ill to think about someone doing that

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Posted by lila

FWIW, i find it much worse that this is an officiant as opposed to any other vendor

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i COMPLETELY agree with you. SO much worse.

that is realllly very disgusting! makes me really wonder how their conscious doesnt eat at them for doing somethin so horrible! i'd love to hear who this person was... if there was any way for it to be proven, im sure LIW would kick the vendor to the curb

yeah, so i'm assuming that he lied about having a previous wedding that he supposedly 'FORGOT' about. The REAL story is more likely that another couple had just come to him (after he already booked with you) and offered more money.

That makes me upset that an officiant would not only scr*w people over for more money, but then lies about it too. What a jerk. You're better off without that man being apart of your wedding! Consider yourself lucky!!!! I hope you find somebody else soon!

Wow. That is DISGUSTING. What a crappy human being.

I'm shocked and appalled too...esp that it's an officiant!!!! UGH so sorry this happened to you!!!

But on another note, why don't you tell liweddings about his UNprofessionalism and see what they have to say? Why do they want to put THEIR reputation on the line for this horrible officiant? One reason brides go on here is to get reputable vendors and liweddings will lose out if they start getting a reputation for advertising vendors like this!

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Posted by DinaAndRob

Was it Rev. Tom McCormick??

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no